Teams is Microsoft's most intriguing productivity app yet

After reading the article I noted that Microsoft is really starting to position Office 365 as a full SMB. Offering "Teams" as a "free" addition to an already existing subscription is VERY cool!

If you are one of the many SMB's that counts every penny but need a full fledged conferencing\meeting utility this might be worth a look.

Today marks the next major step for Microsoft Teams: It's opening up to all Office 365 commercial organizations, a figure that includes more than 85 million monthly users. It's also packing in several new features, like the ability to schedule meetings without leaving the Teams interface. As it evolves, Teams is looking more and more like the ideal productivity solution from Microsoft, wrapping in elements from other Office 365 apps while also delivering entirely new ways to work together.

As a fairly dedicated Slack user, I was surprised by just how thoughtfully designed Teams was after using it for a few days. It's easier to follow threaded conversations, since they actually look like threads instead of weird off-shoot chats. It's far simpler to start video chats with teammates, and you can even schedule video meetings from within rooms. And given that Teams supports video chats with up to 80 people, it could conceivably end up replacing conference calls for some workers. Even the mere act of creating new channels seems a lot more fluid than Slack, reflecting the fact that working groups tend to evolve quickly over time. A private chat between a few colleagues could end up becoming a channel to house conversations around a new corporate project, for instance.

On the mobile front, the Teams iOS and Android apps are both clean and well designed. Oddly enough, the Android app is the most advanced version, since it supports video and audio calls. That's something both Windows Phone and iOS will have to wait for.